This page collects my work related to patents and innovation. The 2015 AER paper with Roin and Williams remains one of my proudest professional accomplishments. We show theoretically and empirically that cancer research incentives are distorted towards treatment of late-stage disease and away from research on preventing cancer in the first place. This relates to broader concerns about incentives for long-horizon innovation versus so-called “short termism.”
More recently, I have researched incentives for Covid-19 vaccine development and production and incentives to adopt new market designs.
Selected Materials
Research Papers
A Theory of Stock Exchange Competition and Innovation: Will the Market Fix the Market?
Coauthors: Robin Lee and John ShimJournal of Political Economy, (2024): 132, no. 4, 1209-1246.
AEA/AFA Joint Luncheon Address, Will the Market Fix the Market?
Transcript, Will the Market Fix the Market?
Slides, Will the Market Fix the Market?
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Market Design to Accelerate Covid-19 Vaccine Supply
Coauthors: Juan Camilo Castillo, Amrita Ahuja, Susan Athey, Arthur Baker, Tasneem Chipty, Rachel Glennerster, Scott Duke Kominers, Michael Kremer, Greg Larson, Jean Lee, Canice Prendergast, Christopher M Snyder, Alex Tabarrok, Brandon Joel Tan, and Witold WięcekScience, (2021): 68, no.2, 1107-1109.
Bigger Is Better When It Comes to Vaccine Production
How Can More Covid-19 Vaccines be Made Available?
Management Conference ’21: Perspectives on COVID-19
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Patents and Research Investments: Assessing the Empirical Evidence
Coauthors: Benjamin J Roin and Heidi WilliamsAmerican Economic Review: Papers & Proceedings, (2016): 106, no. 5, 183-187.
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Do Firms Underinvest in Long-Term Research? Evidence from Cancer Clinical Trials
Coauthors: Benjamin J Roin and Heidi WilliamsAmerican Economic Review, (2015): 105, no. 7, 2044-2085.
Winner- the Kauffman/iHEA Award for Health Care Entrepreneurship and Innovation Research
Winner- the Arrow Award for "best paper published in health economics" in 2015
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